for a lot of color and pop in a quilt ( I do a lot of scrappy ) you can't go wrong with fat quarters. 4 will equal a yard ( maybe a few cents more than an uncut yard ) but you can really add a lot to your stash. Of course, you will also need a simpler ''quiet'' color to help tone down those wild and crazy fat quarters, so then I will add either tone on tone blenders in fat quarters ( again, think scrappy cream blender fabrics ) or yardage. example, why do a quilt with only 2 colors, say black and white fabric when you can do the same quilt with 20 or 30 different black and white fabrics for a lot more eye candy!! the yardage will be the same for the finished quilt but you will have so much more fun doing the scrappy look.....imo!